The present invention relates to an image-pickup apparatus having an image-pickup unit for imaging an object, and an image-pickup method, and more particularly, to an image-pickup apparatus and method having distance measuring function which can measure the distance, shape, and depth of an imaged object.
A typical example of a conventional image-pickup apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary camera which represents a conventional image-pickup apparatus. The camera illustrated in FIG. 1 is a CCD digital camera, wherein a timing generator circuit 23 generates a CCD driving pulse which is transferred to a CCD 21 through a driver 22 to produce a CCD output. A CDS (correlation double sampling) circuit 24 removes noise from the CCD output, and an A/D converter 25 converts the resulting CCD output to a digital form to provide an image output.
Techniques related to conventional image-pickup apparatuses are disclosed, for example, in JP-A-9-230230, JP-A-2003-346188, and JP-A-2000-055632. In the technique disclosed in JP-A-9-230230, a particular object is irradiated with light flux from a camera to measure the distance from the object based on an angle and position at which reflected light is received from the object. In the technique disclosed in JP-A-2003-346188, the distance to an object is measured with a parallax to create a three-dimensional image of the object based on the measured distance.
In the technique disclosed in JP-A-2000-055632,a time difference is measured for each of pixels of an image under measurement from the moment at which planer light (or parallel light) is emitted from a light emitter to an object under measurement to the moment at which reflected light from the object under measurement is received to reveal the shape of the object under measurement, i.e., the distance between respective sites on the object under measurement from the measured value.